Dog Sleds Hunt for Advantage
In This Year's Mushy Iditarod

The dog sleds have embarked on the 2003 Iditarod in Alaska, continuing in the tradition of the 30 previous 1,000 mile-plus, cross-state races. But things have changed in the Last Frontier state.

For one thing, it's just too darn hot. Unseasonably warm temperatures have turned much of the mushers' usual course into mush, which sent race manager Jack Niggemeyer scrambling to move the route north from the snowless...